Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya: Chapter 8: Part 4

121 Hanuman then thought for himself – “I can easily kill him in battle; Still, I shall leave him alive so that the glory of Lord Rama can come to the fore”.

122 “Let Lord Rama be glorified by killing him, who is out of bounds for everyone else; He himself has given such a boon to his doorkeepers, hasn’t he?”

123 Lord Hari, who is the controller of even Brahma and Rudra has given a word saying – “You shall be slain by myself in all three births”; Even if I kill him now, the Lord shall only bless me and shall not be upset with me; But doing so is not proper Dharma on my part.

124 Thinking this way, Hanuman went towards the monkey warriors; Kumbhakarna rushed towards Lord Rama, eating all the Vanaras on the way.

125 The monkey warriors, who had been swallowed this way, came out of his sense-organ holes (ears, nostrils, ..); Few others came out from the root of his hair follicles; Some of them climbed on him as if they were climbing a mountain.

126 Like a huge tusker, Kumbhakarna shook away all the monkeys on his body, felled them down and went alone towards Lord Rama in order to battle Him; On the way, he continued eating the monkeys and also his own army; He enjoyed the smell of blood and kept drinking it.

127 Lakshmana stopped him with a shower of arrows; But he ignored Lakshmana and went towards Lord Rama holding a hill in his hand; Lord Rama also invited him to battle.

128 Lord Raghava, the lord of all, then took a terrible bow in His hand and pierced the Rakshasa’s body with arrows that were like Indra’s Vajra; Just like how He pierced the body of other Rakshasas previously.

129 That Rakshasa did not fall down for the amount of strength it took the Lord to bring down Khara and others; The Lord then, with a smile, displayed a tiny fraction of His infinite strength and sent some excellent arrows at him.

130 Lord Rama amputated the two hands of the Rakshasa with two arrows; He removed the two legs of the Rakshasa with two more arrows; With another arrow, he decapitated him and made his body fall into the ocean.

131 As soon as the mountain like body of Kumbhakarna fell, the ocean rose with major waves; All the devatas were extremely happy and they praised Lord Rama and showered him with flower petals and congratulated him.

132 Kumbhakarna had originally grown to 3 lakh yojanas; Later, in order to stay in the city of Lanka, he had reduced his size.

133 When he died, he again grew back to his original size; That is the reason the ocean rose so high when his body fell on to it.

134 After that, most of the Rakshasas who were with him were quickly destroyed by the monkey warriors; A few remaining ones ran away from there; They went to Ravana and gave him the news of his brother’s death.

135 Ravana, who was filled with sorrow, fell unconscious; He lost all desire on his life; His son Indrajit then requested him – “Hand over the responsibility of destroying the enemy to me; Let there be no delay!”

136 “I had previously captured the King of devatas himself; This one, afterall, is the son of a human King; Why are you afraid of him?” – Saying thus, he performed the homa of Agni, worshipped Shiva and mounted his chariot.

137 Taking his bow and arrows in his hand, he climbed on to the sky in his chariot and became invisible; By the grace of Shiva’s boons, he released ‘Nagapashas’ on the groups of monkey warriors and bound them by it.

138 When Lord Vishnu was earlier instructing all the devatas to take avatara on earth, Garuda had requesed Him – “Please give me too an opportunity to serve you”.

139 Lord Vishnu told him – “You need not take avatara on earth; I shall receive your service in a different way; You should obtain fame with that; Dharma should be protected by that; And you should have ended up performing your duty as well”.

140 “When Ravana’s son Indrajit shall bind all the monkeys and Lakshmana with his snake chains, you come there and release everyone from the bindings”.

141 “Myself, Lakshmana and Hanuman are all capable of clearing those chains; But none of us will do it; O Garuda! as per your desire, I am ordering you; You have to come and do the task”

142 Since He had Himself said so, Lord Rama did not release anyone at that moment; Similarly Lakshmana also did not do so; And Hanuman, the son of Vayu, also did not do so; After all, isn’t he the one who knows all the divine secrets always?

143 Having tied up Lakshmana and the monkeys in that manner, Indrajit quickly approached his father; Seeing his son come back with that achievement, Ravana became extremely happy and praised his son a lot.

144 Garuda, the king of birds, remembered the orders of Lord Hari and quickly came over there; The monkeys were all freed from their chains by the mere touch of the air from his wings.

145 Garuda, who was adorned with the best ornaments, flowers and scents, bowed to the Supreme Lord and left; The great monkey warriors got up with great excitement, picked up trees and boulders and started roaring.

146 Hearing the majestic roar of the monkeys, Ravana and his son became greatly worried. “They have all been freed from the Nagapasha; What should we do next?” – such a worry engulfed them.

147 Once again, he worshipped Agni and climbed his chariot and became invisible; With the power of Shiva’s and Brahma’s boons, he rained great astras on them continuously.

148 Being greatly hurt by those astras, the monkey warriors along with Lakshmana once again fell down upon the ground; But none of those astras were capable of even touching Sameera, the son of Vayudeva.

149 At that time, Vibhishana had gone inside the city in order to know the happenings there; As soon as he came back, he saw that the entire army of monkeys fallen down; He also saw that Hanuman was completely unharmed.

150 Vibhishana took Hanuman along with him and went to Jambavan, who was deeply unconscious; He sprinkled some water on him and asked him if he was alive. Jambavan replied – “Yes”.

151 Jambavan asked then – “Is Hanuman alive? If he is alive, then all of us are alive. If he is not, then all of us are dead”; When he said so, Hanuman replied – “Yes, I am”

152, 153 When Hanuman said so, Jambavan requested him thus – “Near the Meru mountain, there is another mountain known as Gandhamadana; From that mountain, you should bring four medicines (medicinal plants); The four medicines are ‘Mrutasanjeevini’, ‘Sandhanakarani’, ‘Savarnakarani’ and ‘Vishalyakarani’; Out of them, Mrutasanjeevini is the most important; But the other three are also important”.

154 As soon as Jambavan said so, Hanuman instantly jumped into the sky and reached the Gandhamadana mountain; Just like an arrow released by Lord Rama.

155 Noticing that the medicines became invisible then, he plucked the entire mountain which was 100 yojanas in size, out of anger.

156 The son of Vayu, who is the abhimani devata for strength, plucked that mountain and placed it on his palm and swung; He jumped into the sky with great pace, just like how Lord Hari had done so in his Trivikrama avatara.

157 Hanuman reached the place where the monkeys had fallen down in an instant; By the mere touch of the air from the mountain, all the monkey leaders got up immediately.

158 Lakshmana, the brother of Lord Rama, and all the others worshipped Hanuman, that excellent warrior; They all became very happy; The flowers which devatas showered fell on the head of Hanuman.

159 Devatas, Gandharvas, Maharshis and all the other noble people praised Hanuman a lot; Lord Rama gave him a deep embrace with his arms; Hanuman then threw the mountain which was 100 yojanas standing there itself and made it fall back to its original place.

160 The mountain which Hanuman threw back got fixed in its original position very firmly; The monkeys then picked up trees and boulders and got up shouting loudly in order to do battle.